Acclaimed for his "elegant poetry and virtuosic fire," Alan Chow has won First Prize in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the UCLA International Piano Competition, and the Palm Beach Invitational International Piano Competition.

Winner of the Silver Medal and Audience Favorite Prize at the Gina Bachauer International READ MORE

Acclaimed for his "elegant poetry and virtuosic fire," Alan Chow has won First Prize in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the UCLA International Piano Competition, and the Palm Beach Invitational International Piano Competition. Winner of the Silver Medal and Audience Favorite Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, he was also a prizewinner in the William Kapell International Piano Competition.

A Steinway artist, Professor Chow has performed in recital and in concert with orchestras from coast to coast in 45 states. His recitals have brought him to the major music centers including New York (Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Steinway Hall), Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago (Symphony Center and Ravinia), Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Seattle, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Miami. Concerto performances include appearances with the National Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, and Omaha Symphony. Professor Chow regularly tours Asia with performances in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, including performances with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Pan-Asia Symphony. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with the American, Pacifica and Miami String Quartets and has been guest artist at the Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, San Juan Islands Chamber Music Festival, Kent Blossom Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, Music Festival of Arkansas and Music Mountain. In addition, he appears in joint recital engagements in the Cheng-Chow Trio with pianists Angela Cheng and Alvin Chow.

Also in demand for his teaching, Professor Chow has given master classes throughout North America and Asia at conservatories, universities and summer festivals including the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, New Orleans International Piano Festival, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, Las Vegas Piano Festival, Tunghai International Piano Festival (Taiwan), and in Singapore. Appointed guest professor at the Central Conservatory in Beijing and honored visiting professor at the Shenyang Conservatory, he has also presented recitals, master classes, and lectures in China at the conservatories in Shanghai, Chengdu, Xian and Wuhan.

Professor Chow studied with Nelita True at the University of Maryland where he graduated Co-Valedictorian with his twin brother Alvin, and received the Charles Manning Prize in the Creative and Performing Arts given to the outstanding graduate; with Sascha Gorodnitzki at The Juilliard School where he was awarded the Victor Herbert Prize in Piano; and with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University where he was the recipient of the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship. He also studied at the Mozarteum Sommerakademie with Carlo Zecchi.

Since winning the gold medal at the first Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Douglas Humpherys' concert career has spanned more than three decades across four continents.

During recent years, he has concertized in many of the major cities of cities of Asia. A frequent guest artist in READ MORE

Since winning the gold medal at the first Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Douglas Humpherys' concert career has spanned more than three decades across four continents. During recent years, he has concertized in many of the major cities of Asia. A frequent guest artist in Beijing, he has performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts, the Beijing Concert Hall, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall. In addition to concerts in the cities of Hong Kong and Chongqing, he has presented concerts and lecture-recitals throughout the Chinese conservatory and university system, including the Central Conservatory, the China Conservatory, the conservatories of Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Cheng-Du, Xian, Dalian, and Xiamen, the Shenzhen School of the Arts, Peking University, and Renmin University. In 2002 he made his Korean debut in Seoul at the Kumho Art Hall, and during a 2007 tour of Taiwan, he performed in the cities of Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung.

In Europe, Mr. Humpherys has presented solo concerts in the cities of Moscow, Novgorod, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Venice, and Dublin, with additional concert engagements in Germany, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, and Serbia. He has performed throughout the United States and Canada at numerous universities and festivals, and is frequently a guest artist at conferences of the Music Teachers National Association. He has recorded for the Gina Bachauer Piano Foundation, American Public Radio, and has been featured in live performances on affiliates of NPR and PBS.

During the summer of 2012, he traveled to Buenos Aires to teach and perform with Teachers del Norte-Pianists del Sur, a project sponsored in part by the United States Embassy in Argentina. He is currently listed on the artists' roster of Steinway and Sons.

Mr. Humpherys completed graduate degrees at the Juilliard School (MM) and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), where he is currently Professor and Chair of the Piano Department. During his student days, he studied with Nelita True, Martin Canin, and Robert Smith.

In high demand as a teacher, he has been appointed to visiting residencies or professorships at the Middle School of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, Yonsei University in Seoul, and the University of Michigan. His students have won numerous competition prizes including the Honens, Cleveland, Hilton Head, Osaka, and Pacific International Competitions, as well as two recent national winners of the MTNA/Steinway Young Artists Competition.

He has taught literally hundreds of master classes at universities and conservatories including the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, most of the major conservatories in China, Seoul National University, National Taiwan Normal University, Northwestern University, the Oberlin School of Music, and Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary. He has served on the faculty of many summer festivals such as the Beijing International Festival and Academy, the Chinese National Pedagogy Convention in Shanghai, the Chinese-American International Piano Institute associated with the Sichuan Conservatory at Cheng-Du, the South Bohemia Music Festival in Prague, and the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. In addition, he has presented lectures to the European Piano Teachers' Association, the Music Teachers' National Association, the World Conference on Piano Pedagogy, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.

A frequent adjudicator, he has served on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition fourteen times, and has also adjudicated the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Rachmaninoff International Young Artists' Piano Competition in Novgorod, Russia, the Ricardo Viñes International Piano Competition in Spain, the PTNA National Piano Competition in Tokyo, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition. His experience in this regard led him to create and direct the Eastman Young Artists' International Piano Competition, which is held biennially in Rochester, New York.

Irish pianist Peter Mack is in great demand as a performer, clinician, convention artist, adjudicator, and teacher.

Celebrated for his moving playing and easy rapport with audiences, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Australia, India, and the former Soviet Union. READ MORE

Irish pianist Peter Mack is in great demand as a performer, clinician, convention artist, adjudicator, and teacher.

Celebrated for his moving playing and easy rapport with audiences, he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Australia, India, and the former Soviet Union. He is the winner of the New Orleans, Young Keyboard Artists, and Pacific International Piano Competitions. His prize in the Sherman-Clay competition included a Steinway grand piano. Naturally, he is a Steinway artist!

Peter Mack is well known for his extensive repertoire, having performed twenty-six concertos with orchestras. A choral scholar at Trinity College Dublin, and a fellow of Trinity College London, he has a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Washington. His principal teachers were Frank Heneghan and Bela Siki.

In 2013, Dr. Mack received the extraordinary honor of being asked to deliver both the Advanced Piano Masterclass at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) annual convention in California, and the Masterclass for MTNA Winners at the biennial National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) in Illinois. His students are frequent winners of local, national, and international competitions. He is the proud teacher of eighteen MTNA national finalists, and two MTNA national first place winners. Three of his students have made it to this year's national finals, which take place in Chicago in March.

Peter Mack's 2014 list of engagements includes performances in two of the most acoustically perfect performance spaces in Europe; the Salle Cortot of the Ecole Normale in Paris, and the Haydnsaal of the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria. Dr. Mack is Professor of Piano Performance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

"Mack is one of those lucky ones, born with a completely balanced set of talents. He has perfect piano hands, his technique is all but infallible, he has boundless temperament, style and taste, and above all, he communicates directly.... In all capacities he is indefatigable...." Los Angeles Times

Photo by Michelle Smith-Lewis

For over 30 years Larissa Dedova has appeared in solo and chamber recitals in concert halls throughout the world at such venues as Carnegie, New York, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic, St. Petersburg, Teatro Ghione, Rome, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Moscow, Neue Gewandhaus, Leipzig, READ MORE

For over 30 years Larissa Dedova has appeared in solo and chamber recitals in concert halls throughout the world at such venues as Carnegie, New York, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic, St. Petersburg, Teatro Ghione, Rome, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Moscow, Neue Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Salle de Tanneurs, Tours, Lignano Festival Hall, Lignano, Neue Welt Hall, Zwickau and Bulgaria Hall, Sofia. As soloist, she has played with famous orchestras, including St.Petersburg Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Kiev Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Budapest, Moscow Philharmonic and Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

In a long and illustrious career, Larissa Dedova has performed or collaborated with luminaries such as Dmitry Kabalevsky, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Spivakov, and The Guarneri Quartet. She has appeared as festival artist for numerous music festivals, such as William Kapell International Piano Festival at Maryland, Semaines Musicales de Tours in France, Russian Stars in South Korea, Borken Festival in Germany, Schlern International Music Festival and Cividale del Friuli Festival in Italy, as well as International Piano Festival and White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her chamber music activities include performances with the Left Bank Quartet, flutist Raimond Guiot, cellist Menahem Meir, and pianist Mikhail Volchok.

The lyricism, romanticism and virtuosity of Ms. Dedova's performances have brought her love and affection of audience and critical acclaim. Commenting on Ms. Dedova's performance of D-minor Brahms Concerto with Fairfax Symphony, the Washington Post described it as "performance that went straight to the heart of the music".

Larissa Dedova holds both Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees in Piano Performance from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with Lev Oborin and Evgeny Malinin.

A prodigious technique and musical aplomb have earned her the most important honors and awards. Larissa Dedova was a winner of the Bach International Competition in Leipzig and "Pro Piano" International Piano Competition in New-York, among others. In 1994 Larissa Dedova was named "The Honored Artist of Russia".

A dedicated teacher, highly regarded for her master-classes presented throughout the US, Europe and Asia, L. Dedova has prepared many winners of most notable international piano competitions. She taught at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a full time piano faculty for 27 years.
Ms. Dedova's recording credits include releases for the "Melodia" label as well as for ConClaRec and Morning Storm labels.

4CD set "Complete Solo Piano Music by Debussy" was released by Centaur Records in May, 2011. Ms. Dedova is going to perform this program in Basel (Switzerland) in March 2012 (the marathon of two days, dedicated to Debussy's 150th anniversary). Her coming commitments also include two Tokyo recitals at Sumida Triphony Hall with Debussy's 24 Preludes and Seasons by Tchaikovsky.

Ms. Dedova is a Professor of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

An internationally renowned professor of piano studies across Russia, South Korea, Italy and the United States, Mikhail Volchok studied with many of the most renowned teachers in Russia's best schools. Dr. Volchok studied with Yakov Zak at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Pavel Serebrjakov at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and READ MORE

An internationally renowned professor of piano studies across Russia, South Korea, Italy and the United States, Mikhail Volchok studied with many of the most renowned teachers in Russia's best schools. Dr. Volchok studied with Yakov Zak at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Pavel Serebrjakov at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and at the age of twenty-five went on to win the Bach International Competition, as well as the competitions of the Pan Soviet and the Russian Contest.

A soloist member of the Moscow Philharmonic Society since 1979, Dr. Volchok has toured throughout the world. His wide-ranging repertoire includes works of Bach, Haydn, Mussorgsky, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Schedrin and Tsitovich. He has taught at the Leningrad State Conservatory, the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory, as well as Italy's Cividale del Friuli, and South Korea's Taegu. He has served as a visiting professor at the Music Academy "Ino Mirkovich" in Croatia. His well-documented career includes a wealth of recordings on the Russian label Melodiya.

Founding Artistic Director of the Northern Lights Music Festival, pianist Veda Zuponcic made her formal European debut in 1971 as a recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant.

Critics in London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin noted her powerful and fluent technique, intelligent READ MORE

“Absolute Mistress of Romantic Syntax.” The London Times

“Bristling speed … warmth and poetry …” The New York Times

Founding Artistic Director of the Northern Lights Musica Festival, pianist Veda Zuponcic made her formal European debut in 1971 as a recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant. Critics in London, Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin noted her powerful and fluent technique, intelligent interpretations, and her natural affinity for Romantic composers.

As a prizewinner in the Alfredo Casella Competition she toured Italy, and since then Miss Zuponcic has performed widely on four continents. Her successful American debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1973 was followed by recital and orchestral performances throughout the United States. She has also played more than 100 concerts and recitals in Eastern Europe, including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and other prestigious venues in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Dubrovnik, Tbilisi, among others.

Born in Aurora, Minnesota, Miss Zuponcic’s early studies were with Dorothy Crost Bourgin of Virginia. She went on to study at Indiana University with the great pianist and pedagogue Sidney Foster, where she distinguished herself by winning the Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto Competition and the Performers Certificate.

Further studies were with Ilona Kabos in New York and London, and with Abbey Simon and Seymour Bernstein. She has been Professor of Music at Rowan University of New Jersey since 1972, where she has built a reputation as a successful teacher of students of all ages.

In 1992 she was an Exchange Professor at the Moscow State Conservatory, and she is in frequent demand as a clinician, presenting workshops and masterclasses throughout the world, including the Barcelona Liceo, Moscow State Conservatory, Tashkent Conservatory, Temple University, Eastman School of Music, and the Oxford (England) Piano Festival among others.

Her students have been prizewinners in the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition; San Angelo, TX Competition; the Bartok Kabalevsky Competition, Artists International, the Washington D.C. Intl. competition, the Stravinsky Competition, ARTS/NFAA Competition, Kingsville, TX Competition; Josef Hofmann Competition; Princton Piano Competition; and MTNA National Collegiate, Senior and Junior High School Competitions.

She has served on juries numerous national and international competitions, including the Viardo Competition; MTNA Junior and Senior National Competitions; Eastman School of Music Competition; Kharkov Ukraine Young Artists Competition; and Nis, Serbia Young Artists Competition.

She is the Founding Artistic Director of the Northern Lights Music Festival in Aurora, Minnesota. She has recorded two CD’s for Melodiya: The Romantic Piano and Americans from Moscow including works by Carter, Dello Joio, Fine, Copland and Gershwin.

Mitsuko Ichimura has concertized extensively throughout Japan and the US, as a soloist and in collaboration with other artists on stage and on television. She is known for her huge coloristic range and lyricism.

Ms. Ichimura is founder and director of the Ichimura Music School in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, where she produces strong READ MORE

Mitsuko Ichimura has concertized extensively throughout Japan and the US, as a soloist and in collaboration with other artists on stage and on television. She is known for her huge coloristic range and lyricism.

Ms. Ichimura is founder and director of the Ichimura Music School in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, where she produces strong performers and professional musicians from enthusiastic young pianists.

Since 2003, she has also been active in the Connecticut area providing a new door for the young musicians. She conducts master classes in several cities in Japan and the US for piano and chamber music. Her students have gone on to study at such prestigious schools as the Juilliard School, Toho School in Tokyo, the Royal Academy in London, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Manhattan Music School. Her students have garnered awards at major national and international competitions and are often featured in music festivals around the world.

Frequently, young professional pianists travel from overseas to New York for intensive study with her before important concerts, auditions or competitions. Ms. Ichimura regularly conducts Master Classes and performance workshop in Japan. As an authority on musical education, she has appeared on cable television and as a guest speaker at cultural institutions. According to the New York Education Guide published by U.S. Japan Publications New York: “She not only builds pianists, teaching them the technique of playing an instrument and communicating to the audience through the instrument, she grows music into their personalities through the instrument. Through this process the student’s individuality is developed. She teaches both the discipline and the pleasure needed for accomplishment in music.”

Ms. Ichimura is a graduate of the Musashino Academy of Music and The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Beveridge Webster, Felix Galimir and Leonid Kochanski. She has taught at the State University of New York at Purchase and also was director of Parnassus International Music Institute at SUNY, Purchase where many young musicians gathered from all over the world for intensive master classes and performances during the summer.